Bedspread improvements

Somehow it seems that I am only working for my family at the moment but they really are lovely customers to have. After having finished the quilt for my sister's mother-in-law I moved on to improve a bedspread for Anja and have in fact already begun to work on a quilt my brother ordered for his girlfriend. And of course all should be done before Christmas.

So to the bedspread then.
The bedspread is a heavy beast in white. The right side is rather beautifully embroidered white on white. But the wrong side is just... a wrong side (sorry forgot to take a photo). So the thing looks a bit like a quilt without a pretty backside and without quilting.

Quilting wasn't an option here but I thought I could make a pretty back and sew it against the wrong side.

Two possible fabric collections automatically came to mind to pretty this bedspread. These were Bella by Lotta Jansdotter and Summersville by Lu Summers. Both use a lot of white and that is what I wanted. In the end I decided on Summersville because I think the smaller designs work better.

I kept it simple and cut 20 large sqaures around the 17" mark and sewed these together and then sewed this against the wrong side by turning the edges over an inch. I used this technique rather than the easier "bag" technique (fabrics right sides together, sew all around except for a turning hole etc.) because the bedspread already had very thick edges and it would have possibly killed my machine. This also has the advantage that the backside is not visible from the right side at all thereby giving it  two distinct sides.

The new pretty backside still required some more stabilizing in the absence of quilting. So I sewed little crosses on the intersecting lines and in addition tied the two layers together. Though the tying is more a decorative accessory here as the sewn crosses do the job of securing both layers. I used bright white thread so the crosses aren't visible from the right side and the thread from tying is neither.

I am rather please with this and it really makes all the difference to the bedspread because it not only looks pretty now when it is folded back on a bed but it can be used reversible.

And you know what the best thing is, that bedspread is on the bed in the spare room which is where I sleep when I visit, so I have my favorite fabric line of 2012 around me all the time when I am at my sisters' !